Piece — Restaurant in Scotland

If you’re Coeliac or GF - BEWARE. Was a nice visit when we went it and had some lunch. Lovely bearded guy behind the counter was chatty and very welcoming. We had some sandwiches/bagels and we were assured the GF option would be absolutely safe for a coeliac, as his wife that bakes it all was coeliac, too. So one was ordered. Unfortunately 3-4 hours later my girlfriend was being sick from obviously being fed gluten. She had nothing to eat or drink prior or after what we had at Piece. When simply letting them know via private message that clearly a mistake had been made and she was given gluten, and that we weren’t after any refunds or free food, just hopefully so they don’t make the same mistake again, the wife responded & denied anything being done wrong from their end and basically shifted the blame and even suggested some additional tests for intolerances to “melted cheese and eggs”. Absolutely no accountability for their mess up. Just blame shifting. At the end of the message she said “stick to my cakes, you can’t gone wrong with them ;) ”. I’ve worked in hospitality myself, in all sorts of roles for 8 years and that is honestly some of the worst customer service I’ve ever seen. Initially I wasn’t going to write a review, that was the whole point of the private message. However, denying any possible mistake from their end and shifting the blame onto my girlfriend genuinely pissed me off, so much I had to say something....

As the owner has requested specific feedback on this review, I will elaborate. My husband and I went for lunch here and ordered 2 toasted sandwiches and 2 coffees. When my ham and cheese sandwich arrived, I got a strong taste of fish from it and asked the young man working there if there was fish in it. He said there were anchovies and capers in it that were not written on the board description of it. When I said it was an overpowering taste he agreed it should have been on the board, however instead of offering to make a new one, he opened the sandwich and started scraping out the fish that was now melted into the cheese, leaving the cheese hanging out the side and some of the fish still in the sandwich. I tried to then eat the sandwich but it tasted awful so I left it, and when he asked was it okay now my husband stated that anchovies are just quite a strong flavour to get rid of, to which the owner of the cafe (a lady with mid length white hair) rolled her eyes and tutted, offering no apology. When we were leaving we then thanked both the owner and the young man and said goodbye. The young man said a pleasant goodbye however the owner turned away when we looked at her and stood facing the opposite direction, after having clearly heard us address her. Aside from that the coffee was good, but the experience ruined...

Don't go here if vegan. Other eateries in town recommend it to vegans, and a blackboard outside says vegan options are available but staff are terribly unaware which menu items are vegan, and couldn't say whether any of their bread products are vegan or not. On a second visit I just asked for vegan cake which is specifically advertised outside and the staff member struggled to identify which symbols on their blackboard indicated vegan, and initially offered me anything with a heart symbol which turned out to mean dairy free (not necessarily vegan). I don't have a problem with eating outlets not offering vegan options but if you advertise that you do, you must train your staff to understand more about what is vegan AND how unnerving it is for someone with a dietary requirement to encounter such extreme uncertainty from...